Power Functions Train Motor Stops by itself

[provoaggie]

I'm new to Lego Trains with this year's holiday train being my first. I decided to power it and so far I've been pretty impressed except for the fact that it stops by itself after a minute or 2. Is this normal? I can use the remote to turn start it right back up but it's kind of annoying to have to do that. I have it as a holiday decoration and would prefer that it just kept going. Is this normal? Is there anything that can be done about it? Right now I'm using battery box 8881 (https://shop.lego.com/en-US/LEGO-Power-Functions-Battery-Box-8881) while I wait for 88000 to arrive. It was back ordered to replace my order. I don't think this is the problem but maybe it is so I thought I'd mention it.

[pyro690]

Are you sure its not the receiver? Maybe interference to the receiver? Have you tried to run the motor straight from the battery?

[Edde]

1 hour ago, pyro690 said:

Are you sure its not the receiver? Maybe interference to the receiver? Have you tried to run the motor straight from the battery?

Doesn't sound like it at all, if the reciever lose contact with the remote, the motor should keep going regardless.

Provoaggie, can you film the train in action?

[TomOOO]

The power function motors keep going as they were previous set - power functions send messages only to change settings. 

Have you checked that you have quality batteries - power function will turn off if the voltage drops below a minimum threshold and if the batteries or of poor quality they will dip in voltage with the high current usage of the motors.  (A well know bunny brand have been shown to be very poor quality with a reasonable probability of a duff battery which might be going to high resistance as it is dead).

[Hod Carrier]

Duracells are not poor quality. They simply don't seem to fit correctly inside LEGO battery boxes which affects power transmission. If that was the cause of the problem I doubt the train could simply be restarted with the remote.

But to echo what Pyro says, have you tried running the train direct from the battery? It's possible that you may have a duff transmitter or receiver, and rather than speculating on the cause it would be better to actually try it out and see what happens. At the very least it will help to prove whether or not the remote control is working correctly and you can possibly move towards a solution.

[dr_spock]

Another thing to check is make sure your train wheels aren't binding up the motor causing it to work harder and overheat. Then the thermal protection kicks in and shut it off.